Jesus is the union of the Trinity and Humanity. Therefore the Holy Spirit that comes from the Father, through the Son, is at work in our humanity because the Son shares in our humanity as the man Jesus. The Psalmist says:

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in hell, you are there. ~ Psalm 139:7-8

I believe that if we want to discern where Jesus is working, and join him in his work, then we have to see how every aspect of human existence has been embraced, enveloped, and permeated by the life of the Father, Son, and Spirit through the humanity of Jesus. We have to stop trying to divide the sacred and the secular and stop trying to divide the miraculous and the natural.

As most of you know, we at The Adopted Life are big fans of the work the Holy Spirit is doing with the theologian Baxter Kruger. One of the key insights the Spirit has given Baxter is the realization that the modern American church has not been taking Jesus seriously enough in the way we talk about the “ordinary” aspects of our lives, e.g. cooking breakfast for our kids, going to work, and spending time with friends.

If you have not read Baxter’s latest blog post entitled The Spirit’s Presence, I highly recommend that you go read it right now.

Here’s a quote to whet your appetite:

We either see ourselves and others as merely human, with an occasional dash of ‘supernatural’ inspiration, or we see ourselves and others as those included in Jesus Christ and in His anointing in the Holy Spirit. The former will produce pride and incessant striving, followed by more pride, then boredom and burnout, and the divisive minimization of our human existence as we chase the spirituality of the non-human god. The latter will produce dignity and hope, and a regard for one another beyond race, religion, and all prejudice. For we will see ourselves and others as brothers and sisters (blind as we may be) equally included in the Trinitarian life of God. We will look for the Trinitarian life emerging in and through the ‘humanity’ of others, and we will cherish, celebrate and do what we can to encourage its emergence.

We 21st century American Christians are yearning to know where Jesus is working and to join him in his work. But I believe we need to be educated first. We need to be educated to understand how Jesus is universally present, and we need to let his Spirit undo the false divide we have created between the sacred and the secular, before we will really be able to participate intelligently in Jesus’ ministry.

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2 comments so far

John Geerlings
on
July 1, 2009

Thanks Jonathan
A mind changing post and great reference, quoting “(blind as we may be)” for it is this dim view that I have a unending urge of love for all humanity that wells from deep within. I cannot explain this for it is just there without judgment and this is speaking from a high seated judge not too many years ago. I cannot go back and do not desire it. I thank those who have become fellow travelers along a road that is narrow as we shed our former religious self-induced view of God and see and learn to participate and dance with Father, Son and Holy Spirit in what already is. John